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only who cry, "Peace, Progress"; and eyes only to see signs of good. But if revelation clearly teaches the contempo- raneous development of good and evil, why should we ignore or minimise the evil? The highest form of wick- edness is at the end in him " who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped."

      To call good evil, as the pessimist does, is not so dan- gerous as to call evil good. In the former case, we are at least kept on our guard; in the latter, we are taken un- awares. If the blind optimist lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Better that the supposed evil should prove to be good, than that the supposed good should prove to be evil. To ignore the Antichrist of whom she has been forewarned, is for the Church to expose herself defenceless to his wiles, deceptions, and attacks.

      It may be said in general that all who complain of the development of evil in the future as ''a pessimistic theory,"

      *In his comment on this parable it is said by Archbishop Trench: “We learn that evil is not, as so many dream, gradually to wane and disappear before good; but is ever to develop it- self more fully, even, as on the other side good is to unfold itself more and more mightily also. Thus it will go on until at last they stand face to face, each in its highest manifestation in the persons of Christ and of Antichrist. . . . Both are to grow, evil and good, till they come to a head, till they are ripe, one for destruction, and the other for full salvation."

      viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

      should direct their attention to these two points: first, whether or not the Scriptures foretell an Antichrist in whom the enmity to God and to His Son will culminate, “the man of sin”; and, secondly, if they do, whether or not the movements and tendencies, religious, political, social, of the present time give any signs of his appearing. If there is to be no Antichrist, all enquiry respecting him is lost labour; and if he is to come, but only in some re- mote future, the subject has for us no present interest.

      A word may be said of the objection that the doctrine of the Divine transcendence, as here presented, denies the Divine immanence. This is an error. God is im- manent in man.'' In God we live, and move, and have our being." But what is said is, that the doctrine of the Divine immanence is so presented in many quarters as to be indistinguishable from pantheism. Philosophy and science in many eminent representatives agree in affirm- ing that there is no personal God, only a universal, im- personal Spirit or Energy, of which everything that exists is a part. This, viewed on the material side, is atheism; on the spiritual, is pantheism. If the tran- scendence of God in His acts of creation, as declared in the Scriptures, is given up, the ordinary mind—whatever some acute metaphysicians may say of themselves—can find no final resting-place but in the humbling negations of atheism, or the deifying affirmations of pantheism.

      S. J. A.

      November, 1898.

      PREFACE.

      _____

      The aim of this book is not historical or polemical. It does not repeat in detail the opinions of the early Fathers, or of later writers, or enter into the controversy whether Nero or Mohammed, the Pope or Luther, the Papacy or Protestantism, be called the Antichrist. There is a true sense in which it may be said, "Let the dead past bury its dead." It is in the light of the present that we must re-examine the prophetical problems of the past. As the purpose of God draws nearer to its fulfillment, passing events will tend to show in their distinctive features the nature of that fulfillment. (it is, therefore, for us of to-day to note the religious tendencies of the present, and to con- sider carefully their bearing upon the Divine purpose in man as it has been made known to us in the Scriptures. To those who believe that God, who knows the end from the beginning, has through His prophets and His Son declared this purpose in its outlines for the guidance of His children, our inquiry is of deepest interest. We ask, To what stage of His actings have we come? What are the religious characteristics of the present time? )

      If the right discernment of the religious character of an age is always to those living in it of the highest import- ance, the right discernment of the present time is especially important to us, if, as we are told by not a few, it is in many points to be distinguished from all that have pre- ceded it. To-day, indeed, is always the child of yesterday. The continuity of history is never broken. Yet history tells us of successive stages of religious development, each having its own marked features. Whether we have come to a new stage, must be determined by its special charac-

      (ix)

      x PREFACE.

      teristics. Let us, therefore, note what is said of the present time by representative men, regarding it from very different points of view. What new religious elements do we find in it? In what direction are they developing? And what is the goal?

      It was said early in the century by the German philoso- pher Schelling, noting the tendencies of philosophic thought around him: “As regards the past, there is striving a com- plete new age, and the old cannot comprehend it, nor has it a distant presentiment how distinct and complete is the antagonism to it of the new."

      Lecky ("History of Rationalism"): "It has long been a mere truism that we are passing through a state of chaos, of anarchy, and of transition. During the past century the elements of dissolution have been multiplying all around us. . . . The days of Athanasius and of Augus- tine have passed away never to return. . . .The controver- sies of bygone centuries ring with a strange hollowness upon the ear."

      Cardinal Newman ("Patristical Idea of Antichrist") speaks of "a special effort made almost all over the world, . . . . .but most visibly and formidably in its most civilized and powerful parts, an effort to do without Religion.... Truly there is at this time a confederacy of evil marshal- ing its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself and taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general Apostasy from it."

      Leslie Stephen ("Agnostic's Apology"): "I conceive that a vast social and intellectual transformation is taking place, and taking place more rapidly now than at almost any historical period….I cannot say what will be the outcome of this vast and chaotic fermentation of thought.

      ….The creed of the future, whatever it may be, exists only in germ. Philosophers, not apostles or prophets, are founding a philosophical system, not a religion."

       PREFACE xi

      Goldwin Smith: "There is a general feeling that the stream of history is drawing near a cataract. . . .There is everywhere in the social frame an outward unrest, which, as usual, is the sign of fundamental change within. Old creeds have given way."

      Gronlund, the Socialist: "All signs and portents show that the face of mankind has already been set in a social- istic direction.... There has been the access of a new, rational, divine order in human life that is disintegrating the old, outward, and temporary organization, and gradu- ally creating the new."

      Kuenen, the Biblical critic: "The problem of the future is especially serious now when so much is being super- seded and is passing away, when a new conception of the world is spreading in ever wider circles; when new social conditions are in the very process of birth. . . . . In us the ends of the ages meet, the ends of the old and the new."

      Prof. Sohm ("Outlines of Church History"), speaking of culture, says: ''This tendency has become more and more powerful since the middle of the century, and is hostile, not only to the ecclesiastical and Christian, but to every religious theory of the universe." "The society of our day is like the earth on which we live—a thin crust over a great volcanic, seething, revolutionary heart of liquid fire." "More and more clearly are shown the signs of the movement, the aim of which is to destroy the entire social, order of the State, the Church, the Family. Unbelief has grown up among us, an unbelief which is kindling the revolution of the nineteenth century."

      Kidd ("Social Evolution"): "The present is a period of reconstruction. A change is almost imperceptibly tak- ing place in the midst of the rising generation respecting the great social and religious problems of our time. . . .We are rapidly approaching a time

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